Introducing Digital Techniques to Radio Products

This article will present an introduction of the use of digital demodulators, as compared to a conventional FM receiver used with an analog demodulator, such as a PLL, or more commonly, a limiter-discriminator. It will present the case that digital demodulators not only offer advantages for modern radios, but provide a degree of future-proofing as well.

By C.N. Wilson

In cellular radio, digital schemes have, for some time now, replaced analog FM as the dominant modulation method. In other markets, however, FM is still widely used, although new products are invariably moving to digital even if FM is still available for backwards compatibility. Furthermore, long-established data systems are moving to more advanced modulation schemes and starting to offer multi mode performance. As such, radio circuit designs need to embrace modern techniques to achieve next generation requirements.

Due to the equations in this article, we have made a PDF available for you to download.